We roll down the cyclepath in Sao Sebastiao to breakfast finding just seconds away from the campground on the cycling path a pastelleria for the morning session of dainty little pastries in vast array washed down with strong café leite.
All of this accompanied by blue skies and bluer waters whose waves are topped by surfers. As much as we like to surf we are not tempted to rent boards as they are all wearing wetsuits . We are certainly warm water surfers. Since Peniche we have seen surfers at pretty much every surf break and notice license plates from all over Europe
Fueled by the morning café session we start riding in our now daily fashion, uphill. Climbing, climbing we wind in and out of cobblestone streets on gradients ever increasing on our quest to stay off the national highway. As hard as we try, after multiple miles we are spit out on the highway.
Coming into Sintra we stop at the tourism office and check the city layout and ask about bicycles on the train. Handed a map of the World Heritage site spread out over 7K and insured that bicycles can go on the train “even with wheels on”, we head off to Chinese food. As a vegetarian Lowell has been short on solid meals in Portugal and Chinese is a welcome opportunity for him.
Sintra is scattered with palaces and gardens, the 30 heactare park Monsserate created by an English landscape artist with help from Kew Gardens in London. It is delightful and on our wandering path through and out of Sintra Villa.
Riding on we pass villas and palaces and a riding stable. Stopping in we watched a lesson and spoke with a young lad, dressed in riding boots and jodhpurs, who gave a tour of the horses, both English and Luso, as he referred to them. It was evident that he was very passionate and knowledgeable about the horses. The stable and arena was bordered by the Monsserate garden and a palace and had a regal feeling which went well with the horses.
Climbing, climbing we ride out of the Sintra complex we pass a rental car who calls out that it is all downhill from here and it was. Brake burning, rim heating downhill and required a stop by me to let my rims cool. We wound in and out of small villas on a shady walled road and cars honked coming around corners to let you know they were there
The downhill run shorted end and evolved into a 5K climb on our way to Cabo Roca, the farthest point west in Europe. It is a lighthouse and people arriving there can receive a certificate. We planned on finding someone to take our picture together. That was until we came to the road to the lighthouse. It took no convincing of each other to skip the long downhill and subsequent climb back out. We could see it just fine from where we were.
The final run into Guincho campground by Cascais was a delight. Endless kilometers of downhill bordering on mediterrainian blue waters bordered with sandy beaches and we finished our day with a last climb into the camp.
We recommend heaps the camp at Guincho, complete with bar, restaurant, swimming pool and super Mercado. Settling down for a Super Bock to wash down the road even before we set up camp, we had already made up our minds to lay over for a day in Cascais.
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